It occurred to me recently that as I live on the Grand Union canal I ought to go exploring along it. One way leads to London, which is interesting enough, but the other leads to Birmingham, a place which I have only ever been to once before, and then only to the train station. It’s only 140 miles away. Sounds like a project. Part the first: Uxbridge to Hemel Hempstead.
This is a gloomy looking abandoned industrial building near Rickmansworth. I’ve no idea why there is a huge monkey hanging from it.
I took a detour into Watford for lunch even though it’s not technically on the canal. The “North” officially begins at a place called the Watford Gap which for a long time I thought was located just north of Watford itself. It’s not: it’s much closer to Coventry. Perhaps I’ll encounter it later on the canal! Anyway, without that claim to fame Watford doesn’t seem very interesting. I guess it is one of the most northerly areas of London, which is somewhat noteworthy. The town centre was a bit bland and post-war, although there was a nice market area with a Japanese cafe.
This is a lock just south of Hemel Hempstead. There are a lot of locks on the canal: 166 in total. A bit later on I passed the offices of Imagination Technologies where I tried unsuccessfully to get a job once.
I’d visited Hemel Hempstead once before but in true doof.me.uk style I blundered into town after dark without any time to explore. I don’t think I missed much, the shopping precinct was very generic but crossing the Swindon-esque pentagram of mini roundabouts to get there provided a bit of entertainment.
Next stop Leighton Buzzard and Milton Keynes!
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